EVE Online and DUST 514 maker CCP Games has hired veteran game producer Jean-Charles Gaudechon. Gaudechon will serve as the executive producer of DUST 514, CCP’s free-to-play first-person shooter on PlayStation 3. Gaudechon will drive future development of the persistent-world first-person-shooter DUST 514 at CCP’s Shanghai studio, according to the company.

Joshua Howard, the lead producer of Crytek's free-to-play first-person shooter Warface says that the development teams decision to add female soldier skins to the game with "unrealistic proportions and revealing uniforms," was the result of player feedback and represented a certain "cultural relativism."

If you wanted to get into the Battlefield 4 beta but weren't a Battlefield 3 Premium purchaser, then you'll be happy to hear that the online multiplayer beta test for EA's and DICE's military first-person shooter is being opened up to the public.

Rockstar Games has released an update to Grand Theft Auto Online on the PS3, with plans to release the update for Xbox 360 "as soon as possible." The online companion service to Grand Theft Auto V has had a rough start since it launched on Oct. 1, with many fans having trouble logging in and staying connected to the service - amongst a host of other technical issues. Some players claim that they have been unable to play GTAO at all.

Speaking to VG247, DICE creative director Lars Gustavsson admitted that the company made a mistake with how it structured the unlocks in Battlefield 3, going so far as to say that he should probably be "slapped for it."

"We shipped Battlefield 3, which we should be slapped for, with probably the worst set-ups ever," he said.

Author Tom Clancy died last night, according to the New York Times. Tom Clancy was 66-years-old. Most in the world knows Tom Clancy for his bestselling novels about the military, espionage, government corruption, and spying that have spawned an unstoppable empire of movie and video game franchises.

Grand Theft Auto Online, the multiplayer companion to Grand Theft Auto V, launched today and Rockstar is already apologizing for early technical issues. Of course, Rockstar warned on Monday that it expected a few hiccups here and there as hundreds of thousands or even millions of players converged on the service.

The UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is warning app and game developers that high-pressure monetization in programs that are aimed at children needs to be avoided going forward. The OFT made its announcement today after months of investigation (which began in April) into allegations that some free online apps and games for children were using questionable tactics to get children to purchase in-game items - often without parental consent. The OFT examined 38 games related to this practice and drafted a set of guidelines for UK developers.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection services company Prolexic issued a press release today detailing what it calls "the rampant problem of denial of service attacks within and from online gaming communities." These DDoS attacks are often fueled by rivalries, poor password security protocols and readily available DDoS tools, according to Stuart Scholly, president of Prolexic. The company released its findings in a new White Paper released today.

A new Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign has an interesting pitch: help fund an MMO universe built with a high level of input from players. Not only will players have a say in how the fantasy MMO will be built, the creators of the game claim that they are already helping to build out some of the content. The game is called Neo's Land, and it is being developed by Calgary-based game studio NeoJac Entertainment.

In July of this year, EA announced that it would be shutting down its German studio, EA Phenomic. The company handled the ongoing development of a number of free-to-play online games including Spellforce, Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances, and Battleforge.

Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment is warning users that any offers to get in on an early beta of the game are not real and will likely lead to some sort of scam that could compromise personal info, privacy, or computer security.

The studio took to its official Twitter feed to advise fans not to provide any personal details to sites pretending to offer testing opportunities for the upcoming Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Windows shooter.

It looks like LEGO is going to get into the toy-game crossover business established by Activision's Skylanders and adapted by Disney's Disney Infinity game with a game of its own. Luckily for both those franchises, the game and the supporting mini-figures will be used for an online and iOS title being developed by Funcom - and not on consoles. The online game, LEGO Minifigures Online, is set to go live next summer and will use a new range of $2 toys that include an unlock code to add a virtual version of a playable character into the game.

Sony Online Entertainment announced that it has laid off an undisclosed number of employees at its San Diego, Calif. and Austin, TX. studios as part of a new initiative to reduce costs, align its resources, and streamline its workforce company-wide.

"As part of a strategic decision to reduce costs and streamline its workforce, SOE announced today that it will eliminate positions in both its San Diego and Austin studios," the company said in a statement.

The reality of living under a government like Iran is never so apparent as when a group of gamers is trying to set up a competition that involves playable female characters. According to this Kotaku report, Iran's World Cyber Games is putting together a League of Legends tournament in Sept., but the government has demanded that most of the female playable characters be banned.

Developer Splash Damage has decided to rename its free-to-play PC action game Dirty Bomb to Extraction. Given how the NSA might put you on a special list for searching for the term "Dirty Bomb," we think that is the best move for both fans and the Brink developer. Splash Damage also announced a publishing deal for Extraction with Nexon for launch in Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand.

Disney announced that it will shut down its kid-friendly MMO Toontown Online in less than a month. The only silver lining for subscribers is that they will get unfettered access to all of the games extra services. Toontown Online is a fairly non-violent MMMO that lets kids fight against menacing toons called "Cogs" (who don't like fun) using pies and other non-lethal weapons.

In Andrew's latest video he talks about Call of Duty: Ghosts adding female characters into multiplayer. Chances are you can probably tell when he's being facetious, taking at dig at someone, or just engaging in overblown theatrics to make a point in the video. If you can't, then I recommend that you ask him forcefully about it in the comments.

If you enjoyed this video then you should probably check out Andrew's YouTube channel to find even more of his antics!

Riot Games revealed that account information for a "portion of" North American League of Legends players was recently compromised. According to Riot, usernames, email addresses, encrypted passwords, and some names were compromised, along with approximately "120,000 transaction records from 2011 that contained hashed and salted credit card numbers have been accessed."

As reported by Polygon, Sony Online Entertainment's director of global community relations, Linda "Brasse" Carlson, gave an interesting talk about balancing developer relations with its various online communities, while tamping down abusive behavior by users. Carlson detailed the process the company uses to handle all these different issues during a presentation at GDC Europe 2013 today.

Warner Bros. has confirmed with IGN that the PC version of Batman: Arkham Origins will use Valve's Steamworks for its multiplayer and achievements, distancing itself from Microsoft's Games for Windows Live service. Microsoft announced last week that it planned shut down the marketplace portion of the service at the end of this month.

MCV is reporting that MMO publisher Trion Worlds will close its European office located in Guildford, UK by week's end. The European headquarters for the company will lay off ten employees and close the office this week, according to the report. Staff affected by the closure include Trion Europe boss John Burns, communications boss Jon Goddard commercial director Jeff Pabst, senior brand manager Dominic Wai and PR manager Gary Burns.

Grand Theft Auto V developer Rockstar Games revealed the first details about Grand Theft Auto Online and released a new trailer today. Grand Theft Auto Online will be released on Oct. 1 - a few weeks after Grand Theft Auto V hits retail for Xbox 360 and PS3 (there's also a rumor that the game will come out on the PC by year's end but Take-Two and Rockstar have not officially confirmed that). Access to GTA Online will be free to anyone who has purchased GTA V.

During a special reveal of multiplayer modes in Call of Duty Ghost at an LA event today, Infinity Ward revealed that it has added female models into the game. In addition to having the ability to play as a female soldier, the multiplayer offers dynamic events that affect gameplay and new moves such as knee slides, mantling, and contextual leaning. The game also adds 30 new weapons (including a new Marksman Rifle weapon class), 20 new killstreaks, 14 maps at launch, seven new multiplayer modes, and a new Squads mode that supports up to six players on a team.

A group of Satanists have petitioned Riot Games to uncensor the name of their favorite deity in the popular MOBA game League of Legends. They may have a valid point in calling it censorship of their religious views. In their petition they point out that other religious gods and deities are not censored such as Jesus, Allah, Zeus, Venus and God.

American Express plans to offer a line of prepaid debit cards featuring images and characters from Riot Games' popular MOBA game, League of Legends. The company will announce the new branded debit cards on Wednesday, according to the New York Times, as part of a sponsorship program.

The cards will allow cardholders to get "Riot Points" that can be used to buy characters and other extras in the game.

On the same day that Trion Worlds, makers of the Defiance MMO, announced that Scott Hartsman was the new CEO, it shut down its San Diego office. The lion's share of the work being done at the San Diego office was related to Defiance. Trion Worlds confirmed the shutdown of the studio and that development on Defiance would be moved to its Redwood City office.

The Wii U version of Ubisoft's next Splinter Cell title apparently WILL have multiplayer but it WON'T have offline multiplayer. Ubisoft producer Liu Jim told Nintendo Life that Splinter Cell: Blacklist for the Wii U won't have four-player local co-op because the company just didn't have enough time to devote to it before it ships. The game will ship on all platforms at the same time - August 20.

It looks like another big franchise will dip its toe into the free-to-play waters on Sony's PlayStation Network. Namco Bandai Games announced today that the newest game in its ultra popular Ace Combat series is Ace Combat Infinity for PS3. Scheduled for release in late 2013 exclusively as a download on PSN, Ace Combat Infinity promises a brand new story campaign and team co-op multiplayer in a free-to-play setting.

On Thursday the People's Liberation Army (PLA) released a video game commemorating the founding of the powerful group developed by Giant Interactive Group. The game (revealed by this Reuters report) is called Glorious Mission Online and lets players put on the uniform of the PLA as it defends contested islands in the East China Sea called "Diaoyu" by the Chinese and "Senkaku" by the Japanese.